Liriano and Cole are the only two pitchers I'd put ahead of AJ Burnett in this rotation. Locke and Wandy are huge question marks. Morton is a 4th-5th starter, and the soonest Taillion will be up is in June.

1) The only lefty starting pitchers the Pirates have right now are Wandy and Locke, both of whom are question marks, and there aren't any top LHP starters in the upper levels of the system;

2) The Reds and Cards, as presently constructed, are vulnerable to lefty starters;

3) As much as we say teams should ignore PR and the fans, the optics of trading Liriano would not look good. People freaked out about the Pirates trading Hanrahan; this would be worse. This is partially a selfish reason, because I don't want to spend another offseason reading about how the Nuttings don't care about winning as the goalposts are moved back another 20 yards;

4) All of the reasons that the Pirates should trade Liriano are reasons that teams may not give up major prospects for him.

I don't think I would make trading Liriano a priority, though if someone wanted to make NH a godfather offer I'd listen.

Rocco wrote:4) All of the reasons that the Pirates should trade Liriano are reasons that teams may not give up major prospects for him.

Thats the big key. Does anyone really believe that the pirates would receive a top notch prospect for a guy with one year left on his deal, injuries in the past, and consistency issues throughout his career? Even though Lirano is relatively young, it does not seem likely. Its a stupid basis for an article.

Rocco wrote:4) All of the reasons that the Pirates should trade Liriano are reasons that teams may not give up major prospects for him.

Thats the big key. Does anyone really believe that the pirates would receive a top notch prospect for a guy with one year left on his deal, injuries in the past, and consistency issues throughout his career? Even though Lirano is relatively young, it does not seem likely. Its a stupid basis for an article.

Teams do dumb things all the time. The Dickey trade was dumb on its face and Toronto still made it. Looking to cash in on Liriano isn't a bad idea since he's gone after this season. I just don't think any team will give the Pirates enough to make it worthwhile.

Rocco wrote:4) All of the reasons that the Pirates should trade Liriano are reasons that teams may not give up major prospects for him.

Thats the big key. Does anyone really believe that the pirates would receive a top notch prospect for a guy with one year left on his deal, injuries in the past, and consistency issues throughout his career? Even though Lirano is relatively young, it does not seem likely. Its a stupid basis for an article.

Teams do dumb things all the time. The Dickey trade was dumb on its face and Toronto still made it. Looking to cash in on Liriano isn't a bad idea since he's gone after this season. I just don't think any team will give the Pirates enough to make it worthwhile.

Shield's value is so much greater than Liriano's that I'll just ignore that he even mentioned that trade in this. The mets did get great value for Dickey considering his age and contract status. Dickey also had pretty low mileage and is a knuckleballer coming off a Cy Young award. His age factor was mitigated by his pitching style. He had been very effective and durable the three seasons prior to the trade, about 200 innings a year at a sub 3 era. There was plenty of reason to think that Dickey was in his prime and had several more years at the level in him. Plus he had the nice backstory and the prestige of the Cy Young.

You can't reasonably look at the Dickey trade and then look at Liriano and think there's that kind of value. One good season in the NL in a pitcher friendly park that favors left handed pitching. Unless of course some team is run by Dave Littlefield and thinks $6M for a power hitting corner infielder is unmanageable, there's no trade out there worth it for the Pirates.

More evidence for me that Tim Williams is amateur hour over there at Pirates Prospect. Again, just keep tallying up minor league performances and getting quotes from scouts and recapping the pay articles from Baseball America. Stop trying to analyze things, it's beyond you. You can't hype someone up as a trade candidate contingent upon another MLB team having Littlefield quality management.

For the anti-advanced stats crowd, they now track holds and whatnot. He held the runner to not taking an extra base over 70% of the time- no one with more than 100 chances had a better percentage. People just didn't run on his arm, which limited his chances to rack up assists.

The problem is that Gold Gloves are often awarded to the best offensive player at that position, like when Nate McLouth won a Gold Glove. Carlos Gonzalez won it despite being a below-average LF last year and he was better in the field this year.

For the anti-advanced stats crowd, they now track holds and whatnot. He held the runner to not taking an extra base over 70% of the time- no one with more than 100 chances had a better percentage. People just didn't run on his arm, which limited his chances to rack up assists.

The problem is that Gold Gloves are often awarded to the best offensive player at that position, like when Nate McLouth won a Gold Glove. Carlos Gonzalez won it despite being a below-average LF last year and he was better in the field this year.